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The Roblox Microverse

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Re: The Roblox Microverse

#141

Post by guidoism »

webwielder2 wrote: post #38
guidoism wrote: post #13

Roblox pisses me off so so much as a parent. There are some good games but it's mostly wading through an ocean of shit. And the vast majority of games that are popular are clickers that incentivize children to pay money to get more for each of their clicks. And it's full of scams. Kids spend $10 for a hat or something in the game and it doesn't end up working in all the games and there's no recourse. It's a true free…

"Pisses off adults" is historically a pretty good metric for evaluating success.

I don't disagree with you — Both theoretically and in reality where success means forking over your money to a massive corporation in order to shut your kids up. Do I sound cranky? :-)

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#142

Post by guidoism »

jimmyvalmer wrote: post #58
guidoism wrote: post #13

Roblox pisses me off so so much as a parent. There are some good games but it's mostly wading through an ocean of shit. And the vast majority of games that are popular are clickers that incentivize children to pay money to get more for each of their clicks. And it's full of scams. Kids spend $10 for a hat or something in the game and it doesn't end up working in all the games and there's no recourse. It's a true free…

You've clearly forgotten what being a kid means. Any game kids want to spend money on is inherently "good" and not "sh_t" according to the one metric that matters: is it fun or not?

Except that in this case the vast majority of the money my kids have spent have been a huge failure. They expect something to work a certain way when they buy it and because of zero QC it doesn't and they end up losing their money and crying.

They are learning that the world is a cruel place and people are out to get them. (I'm only partially joking)

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#143

Post by guidoism »

jimmyvalmer wrote: post #126
antiterra wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've clearly forgotten how disappointing things can be when you're a kid. How you waited for Christmas or saved for weeks only to find the thing you got is garbage. I've heard plenty of stories about kids being absolutely gutted for not getting what they thought they were getting for virtual currency in Roblox and Minecraft. That's also not mentioning how different aspects of a game can be fun or unfun. It could be…

> You've clearly forgotten how disappointing things can be I must have because I don't remember being at all "gutted" when I obsessed over the one $20-or-less item my parents allotted me each Christmas. This is quite contrary to what I see amongst kids today who spend all of a couple hours with their physical gifts and go right back to the Minecraft/Roblox marathon.

My kids are so much happier on Minecraft because there's no built-in pay-money-to-get-better mechanism. Minecraft has a HUGE value in the price you pay to the amount of awesome gameplay you get. Even with Realms it's cheap compared to what you get out of it.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#144

Post by unfocused »

Interesting. I just talked to the experts - my 7 year old and 9 year old. They play Roblox sitting side by side on the couch, right beside me. They spend $0 and I just asked them, are you looking to buy anything, and they said "No" you don't need to, but they do know a kid who has spent $100 and is addicted to it (their words, not mine...could be exagerated).

Then again, the 9 year old also has a steam account, and they buy all their games from their $5/week allowance. It's their choice. We do not control what they spend money on.

They made a couple of bad purchased, and cried, and regretted it, but it taught them to be careful. So I guess, you can say, there are ways to letting kids play Roblox and controlling their spending.

And to be fair, it really depends on the kid. Some resist buying impulsively better than others. Also, as an aside, they try to add kids that they know in real life.

They get their video time from 6:15pm until 7:15pm on weekdays. They pick their video time. Whether watching Planet Earth, Youtube, Steam, Roblox, it doesn't matter. BUT, they get 1 hour. Essentially we are trying to give them power of choice, and ability to fail. It's not perfect, but...I guess we're just learning as we go along.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#145

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #76
jonheller wrote: post #75

I used to push back had on my kids wanting to buy hats, pets, etc in Roblox. Seemed like a waste of money and I hate microtransactions. Then I realized that this is literally the only game they play, and it's free. Compare that to me at that age, buying Nintendo games for $50 a pop, why am I hesitant to support these creators with a $2 hat? I still limit purchases just for general personal finance lessons, but otherw…

Makes me think of collectible card games. If I hadn't spent my own pocket money as a kid on MTG, Star Trek CCG and Pokemon, there's no way in hell I would let my kid buy into an obvious scam CCGs are. But I did spend money on them and enjoyed it, so I'm not so sure now.

Why do you think it's an "obvious scam"? I played MtG for many years. I spent money, sure, but nothing obsessive and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it: the game is interesting and always changing, I went to tournaments, met people, and then there was the economy: trade, trying to predict cards whose price would go up, etc. I remember doing arbitrage at some point when a card appeared in a preconstructed deck for €X and was selling for like €X+5 (it didn't last much, of course). I also learned some foreign languages because I had cards in various languages. I think it was money well spent, and I have no doubt it would be a good experience for my kid as well.

I still have the cards, they have a resale value. More than I spent on the game, as some have become difficult to find. Of course, this could change (I don't really think they'll become worthless because MtG is not just any CCG, it's quite iconic due to its history, but it could happen), but at the very least they are a physical item that remains there and can be played with. When my son grows, he will probably enjoy them, regardless of their value.

Loot boxes for games that give you a virtual item that you can't even sell or gift and will probably be worthless in 4 years when the server closes... now that's a scam, unless in exceptional cases (small one-time purchase to support devs, etc.). I don't spend money on that and I wouldn't let my kid either.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#146

Post by RGamma »

thunderbong wrote: post #37

I'm also a parent who's child plays Roblox a lot. I don't know much about PC games, so can the parents here suggest some better alternatives?

Just for reference: https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/windows/ has a huge database of video games.

Also, assuming your child plays with real life friends I don't know how much sense it would make to suggest alternatives to Roblox (group dynamics, network effects and all), but something like Terraria, Starbound, Minecraft or even Garry's Mod would fit here.

See also searching by tags on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=3859,3810 (here: Sandbox, Multiplayer)

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#147

Post by canadianfella »

jimmyvalmer wrote: post #62
skrebbel wrote: post #45

We have Roblox (kids age 5 and 8). From the start I made a hard "no Robux" rule, which has worked out well so far. This has had a very nice and totally unintended side effect: the kids self select against games that are only fun if you pay. Eg my youngest likes the clicking simulators. Many of those are awful "pay to win" schemes but some actually have fun game dynamics (not unlike the Paperclip Simulator html game t…

I'm fairly sure you're aware that more than 9 out of 10 kids would find Robux-free Roblox immensely more appealing than whatever economic simulations your preternaturally moderate children are taken with.

Preternaturally moderate? What the hell?

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#148

Post by sabujp »

d/ld roblox yesterday, it's impossible to play some of the popular ones on a tablet, no idea what's going on with pigs running around hitting people on the head, uninstalled immediately

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#149

Post by wnissen »

rkalla wrote: post #115
kitd wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I made a hard "no Robux" rule I had that to start with, but now he's older and using the platform to interact with his friends (especially during lockdown), we have relented and now use Robux as incentives for doing chores etc.

Out of curiosity (I have 2 that are into it) what did they 'get' by you relenting and allowing them to spend Robux? Is it just cosmetics or are there certain games/modes/experiences that are only available if you pay?

Some of it is relatively benign cosmetic items for your avatar, like Fortnite. There is definitely a stigma associated with having "bacon hair" which is the default. Or the ability to play on a server with just your friends.

Other times it is a shortcut to stuff that you could get by grinding. $5 gets you twice the XP (experience points) so you can unlock new weapons, levels, etc. Individual games sometimes take this to extremes, I once calculated I would have to play an hour a day for a week to get an item I could unlock for a buck.

The worst ones (Epic Mini-Games, I'm looking at you!) are the ones where you can outright pay to win by breaking the game mechanics. Turn yourself invisible, big honking sword that you can't earn, double your chances of being selected for something special.

For the most part the games are truly free to play. You can play in all the modes that are available to paying customers.

Re: The Roblox Microverse

#150

Post by jrm4 »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #95

> In short, Roblox isn’t a game at all: it is world in which one of the things you can do is play games, with a persistent identity, persistent set of friends, persistent money, all disconnected from the device that you use to access the world. That is the transformational change. Second Life, The Sims Online. We’ve been here before. Those platforms didn’t nail it like Roblox, but Roblox did not transform anything.

This is a classic "Sometimes it's the early bird that gets the worm, sometimes the second mouse gets the cheese..."
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